Everything to Know About A Wrinkle in Time Before You See the Movie

Ava DuVernay's film adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time comes out this Friday, and while it looks amazing and you should already have gotten your tickets to go see it, each new trailer raises a ton of questions. I know I read Madeleine L'Engle's book at least two or three times as a kid, and yet I remember nothing. Were the Mrs. W's really that glamorous? There was something called a tesseract? People...time traveled? If none of this is ringing a bell and you don't feel like cramming in a reread before Friday, here's a quick guide to the basics of the novel.

THE KIDS AND THE PARENTS

Storm Reid as Meg Murry.

Disney

Meg (Storm Reid): Thirteen-year-old Meg has trouble at school, both with homework and with fitting in with the other kids. Her family knows that she's brilliant, though, especially with math. She has a close relationship with her younger brother Charles Wallace.

Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe): Charles Wallace is Meg's extremely precocious little brother; in the book he's only five years old. He seems to have the ability to read people's thoughts and feelings, and strikes up a friendship with the mysterious Mrs. W's who live in a house near his family's.

Calvin (Levi Miller): Calvin is a slightly older boy at Meg's school who begins hanging out with the Murry family because his own home life isn't great. He accompanies Meg and Charles Wallace on their journey with the Mrs. W's.

Mrs. Murry (Gugu Mbatha-Raw): In addition to being the mother of Meg and Charles Wallace, Mrs. Murry is a successful scientist who is described in the book as being very beautiful. Her mother's achievements occasionally make Meg feel even more average.

Mr. Murry (Chris Pine): Like his wife, Mr. Murry is also a scientist, but at the start of the book he has been missing for a while. Meg's classmates and neighbors believe that he has abandoned the family, but Meg and her mother believe he will return.

THE MRS. W'S:

Mindy Kaling as Mrs. Who.

Disney

Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey): The three Mrs. W's live in a "haunted" house near the Murry home, and while they outwardly appear to be eccentric women, that's not really what they are — but no spoilers. Mrs. Which is the de facto leader of the group, and in the book she has trouble appearing in a fully corporeal form and thus looks semi-transparent. She also appears in traditional witch garb — pointed hat, black cloak, etc. — but Ava DuVernay has clearly gone in a different direction (see the photo at the top of this post).

Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon): Mrs. Whatsit has the closest relationship with the three children and appears wearing many layers of clothing. Later, she appears as a creature that looks something like a centaur.

Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling): Mrs. Who wears glasses and has trouble using her own words, so she often speaks in famous quotes from authors like Shakespeare, Dante, and Euripides.

Reese Witherspoon as Mrs. Whatsit, with Storm Reid as Meg.

Disney

THE PLOT

Meg is just trying to make it through middle school when her brother Charles Wallace befriends the aforementioned Mrs. W's. The Mrs. W's believe that Mr. Murry is alive and that his disappearance has something to do with a dark energy taking over other planets in the universe. Prior to going missing, Mr. Murry was working on the concept of a tesseract — a fifth dimension that allows you to travel by bending (or wrinkling) space and time. The Mrs. W's want the Murry children (and Calvin, who by this point is hanging out with them) to "tesser" with them in search of Mr. Murry. In the process, they hope to stop the spread of the dark energy, which Meg calls the Black Thing.

Storm Reid in A Wrinkle in Time.

Disney

At first, the Mrs. W's take the kids to a beautiful planet called Uriel so they can adjust to the idea of being somewhere besides Earth, but eventually they travel to Camazotz, the planet where Mr. Murry is being held. Camazotz is completely in thrall to the Black Thing and the entity known as IT, which controls all the people on the planet. On Camazotz, Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin must use all their combined strength to fight IT if they have any hope of returning home.

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